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How do you measure employee motivation? How do you know if an employee is motivated enough or too much? Which motivational sources positively affect performance, safety, and stress?

Bad employee attitudes, lack of commitment, and low morale cut into bottom lines. Employers are continually frustrated with potential superstar employees who only show bad attitude and demonstrate poor performance. Many people believe the problem is a lack of motivation.

Well, believe it or not, these employees are motivated – even highly motivated. Unfortunately they invest their energy in the wrong places – in fighting change, complaining, and disrupting the workplace.

Studies have suggested that 70 percent of employees today are less motivated than they used to be, 80 percent could perform better if they wanted to, and 50 percent put forth enough effort each day to keep their jobs.

I’ll go one step further. All employees are motivated. But based on extensive research, the Quality of Motivation (QM) Theory identifies sources of motivation as having both positive and negative influences.

How can motivated employees produce negative results? What can employers do to avoid motivating these counter-productive behaviors and ensuring they create a positively motivated workplace?